Tejada highlights Ed Wade’s tour of Dominican

Miguel Tejada showed more emotion than usual Saturday night when he homered twice to help Aguilas Cibaenas win their opening game of the Caribbean World Series.

“Saw the first game, and Miguel showed up and put quite a show,” Astros general manager Ed Wade said. “First at-bat, he walked, went to second, scored; homered second time up; struck out with the bases loaded but he just missed the pitch before he struck out; and then homered in the seventh.”

Wade, Astros’ Latin America scouting director Felix Francisco and scout J.D. Elliby were in attendance at Estadio Cibao de Santiago on Saturday night. Those three men also met with Tejada for lunch on Saturday.

“There’s no question about the level of esteem with which they hold (Tejada) here,” Wade said via phone from the Dominican. “He’s very excited about the team and getting started. He wants to win badly. The feedback that I got was very upbeat, very positive about our chances. He certainly seems excited about getting started.”

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Several of my friends have been watching Tejada in the Dominican Republic in the last few days, including my dearest friends Enrique Rojas of ESPNDeportes.com and Melissa Segura of Sports Illustrated. My scouts also tell me that Jorge Arangure of ESPN The Magazine, Jorge Ortiz of USA Today and Jesse Sanchez of MLB.com are there. You can expect all those folks to come out with Tejada stories soon.

Rojas, who opened many doors for me with Tejada and other Dominican officials in the two stories I wrote from Santiago and Santo Domingo two weeks ago, is the first to file a story about Tejada from the Caribbean World Series.

If you read Spanish, you’ll really enjoy Rojas’ story on Tejada dedicating his play to his brother Freddy, who died in a motorcycle accident on Jan. 13. http://espndeportes.espn.go.com/news/story?id=644167&s=bei&type=story

“To him (Freddy Tejada) I dedicate what I am doing on the field,” Tejada told Rojas after the 13-6 victory over Mexican League champion Los Yaquis of Ciudad Obregón.

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I called Sports Illustrated’s Segura to get here impressions on Tejada. This is what she told me from the Dominican.

“Of course everybody in that lineup were getting great swings off the Mexican pitching staff,” she said. “He was making good contact with every single at-bat. His swing looked great. His swings were great. He definitely looked strong.”

Segura is a native of New Mexico, where we all say a man is innocent until proven guilty. As we all know by now, not all of us here have given that benefit of doubt to some of the men mentioned in the Mitchell Report. In the Dominican, Tejada is getting the benefit of the doubt.

I asked Melissa if she got the same impression I did about Tejada’s countrymen’s steady support for the four-time All-Star.

“It’s an unconditional love,” Segura said. “At least that’s the feeling I got. I was thinking about it, they’re almost upholding the American ideal more than we are that you’re innocent until proven guilty. They take him at his word and say, ‘We have to withhold judgment.’

“My second sense is even if the evidence comes out and they find him guilty of obstruction of justice or whatever the federal government charges him with, I think they’d still love him. A lot of it is because he signs autographs here for about three hours and he’s been delivering food to the poor for many years .Those things sure balance out that image, if not overtake it.”

Segura followed Tejada closely since Thursday, and she noticed that he was usually the last player on his team to leave the clubhouse because he works out after games and usually doesn’t leave the clubhouse until three hours after the final out.

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Wade has been in the Dominican Republic since Thursday, and he has been quite busy touring the country. You have to understand that Santo Domingo, the Capital, is two hours from Santiago, where the Caribbean World Series is being played.

The Astros’ Dominican Republic Academy is in San Pedro de Macoris, which is closer to Santo Domingo and even farther from Santiago.

The Astros’ academy doesn’t have a dormitory, which is why I wouldn’t be surprised if the franchise moves into a new Dominican academy before next year.

While in the Dominican, Wade has toured several teams’ academies and some owned by major-leaguer Salomon Torres and former major-leaguer Junior Noboa.

“We’re exploring the possibility of upgrading our situation down here,” Wade said. “I hope at some point in spring training we’ll discuss it. We’re in a situation where we got a field that we lease. And the kids stay in the hotel. It’s not necessarily the ideal situation to be in. We prefer to be in a situation with a complex with a dormitory and eating facility.”

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The Astros have kicked the tires on Bartolo Colon, the former Cy Young Award winner this winter. I saw Colon in the Dominican League championship series, and I wouldn’t give him anything more than a minor-league deal.

The Astros will watch Colon at the Caribbean Series, but the chances appear real slim at best of Colon garnering a major-league contract offer from them.

The Astros are trying to finalize a minor-league deal with Alberto Castillo, whom they saw on Saturday.